NSTA Web Seminars:

This web seminar took place on June 11, 2013, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. eastern
daylight time. The presenter was Ramon Lopez from the University
of Texas at Arlington. This was the seventh web seminar in a series of seven focused
on the crosscutting concepts that are part of the Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS).

The PowerPoint, related resources from the NSTA Learning Center, and web links from
the presentation are now contained in the above resource collection. Clicking on
the collection link will place it in your Learning Center, My Library,
neatly organized under the My Resource Collections tab.

Dr. Lopez began the presentation by discussing the importance of systems and system
models as a crosscutting concept. He talked about the key features of a system:
boundaries, components, and flows and interactions. Dr. Lopez also described different
types of system models, including conceptual, mathematical, physical, and computational
models. Participants discussed their current classroom applications of systems and
system models and brainstormed ways to address challenges associated with teaching
this crosscutting concept.

A certificate of attendance
was deposited into participants' My PD Record and Certificates area in
the NSTA Learning Center for completing the evaluation form at the end of the program.

Here are some comments provided by the participants at the end of the Web Seminar:

“Provided a lot more conceptual structure to my understanding of systems and system
models and how these ideas can be operationalized in the classroom at various grade
levels.”

“It got me thinking about supporting students to create their own systems models
and test them against reality.”

Thanks to the participants and the presenter for the learning opportunity, the interactions,
and a job well done!